Ever since I picked up these new Dick Cavett Show box sets that are out and watched the Rock Icons Collection, my interest in Joni has been re-established. The very first episode in the set is the "Woodstock Episode," literally taped the morning Hendrix ripped the sh*t out of the national anthem. The show features Jefferson Airplane, Joni and (in place of Hendrix) Stephen Stills and David Crosby, still covered in mud.

Although the entire show is fantastic to watch, it's Joni Mitchell that affects me the most. It's obvious that Cavett is enraptured with her, and it's easy to see why. Draped in green velvet, with her young, open face and unbelievably crafted songs, she's a mind bender. There's no one else like her, is there?

The expressions on her face while she performs her song "Willy," a song she says is "for my man and for the moon," are so gorgeous-- she's living her way through the song, lost in her own memories and thoughts. You can see the spark lit on her face throughout the performance and just like the line in the song it is "like a shiny light breaking in a storm."

I've watched it several times through, over and over. The optimism and honesty doesn't live just on her face, it permeates the entire program and seems so foreign to me and to my experience processing much of the music released and performed on tv these days. For some reason, we can't afford to be that optimistic anymore? All I can say is when it's there, it's beautiful to watch.

If you are feeling at all nostalgic or maybe just a bit introspective these days, and you have not already bought and devoured at least Joni's Ladies of the Canyon and Blue, I highly suggest you do so. All these things I have described, the intimacy and fearlessness, you can hear plain as day in her music.